A redeco of the sword-wielding version of Battle Masters Optimus Prime, Silver Knight Optimus Prime is a non-transforming "Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots"-like toy with arms that punch through the use of levers in his legs. He can also be placed on the included controller handle, allowing the punches to be activated with a pair of triggers. Optimus Prime was only available in a Target-exclusive two-pack with Grimlock.
Several Autobots and Decepticons, including Optimus Prime, were reformatted into will-less war machines under the control of Cobra. During an initial attack on a human peace conference, Cobra's remote control of Optimus (whom they had nicknamed "HISS-14") mysteriously failed. G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers #1 Later at Cobra's island headquarters in the Caribbean, Cobra scientists pulled Optimus apart to find out what was impeding their commands. As this analysis took place, Optimus reverse hacked into Cobra computers until they shut him down in a panic. G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers #2 Despite this, Prime sent a viral message out to hundreds of email addresses that included the coordinates of Cobra's base. The message was intercepted by G.I. Joe who teamed up with Wheeljack and Bumblebee. After Wheeljack broke the remote control over the Transformers, Prime went after Cobra Commander. G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers #3 More than a bit frightened of a giant robot gunning for him, the human released Megatron, who was trapped in gun mode. Megatron transformed and fought Prime to a standstill until other Autobots came to back him up. G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers #4
The figure has useful swivel joints at the shoulders and neck, and not-so-useful ones at the wrists and knees. It comes fully painted and pre-assembled, but true to his garage figure origins his Ion blaster must be cut free using a hobby knife, then assembled. His clear blue chest window piece is removable to allow the installation of his Matrix of Leadership, as is a Movie-style Matrix cover (not pictured). He also comes with an alternate hand that allow him to hold his accessories, as well as unpainted and uncut duplicates of his Matrix, hands and helmet, for some reason...
The internet can be blamed for the size and scope of the secondary LEGO market. On the website, BrickLink, you can find almost any set that LEGO has ever produced. In addition, the site keeps records of trends in the market and value of individual pieces. This site is invaluable to a LEGO collector and has given many the ability to grow their collections. Before the advent of this site and sites like eBay, collecting LEGO required going to garage sales. There are now whole sites dedicated to buying LEGO as an investment, but that is a topic for another article.
For the 1987 and 1988 lines, Hasbro introduced even more radical ideas through new sub-groups. The Headmasters and Targetmasters came with partners who transformed into the figure's head or weapon, respectively. Powermasters, including the new version of fan favorite Optimus Prime, came with partners that transformed into engines. Each line would see various permutations over the two-year span, including smaller Headmasters, Double Targetmasters, and a Powermaster with two engines.
The TakaraTomy version of Premium Series Optimus Prime has a considerably different deco from Hasbro's release. Similar to the unique chrome Optimus Prime, Optimus Prime Battle Mode features vacuum-metallized parts for nearly all of the silver truck parts, for a greater resemblance to the polished chrome on the real prop trucks. Unfortunately, as his feet are the front fenders and grill, this will likely lead to chipping. In robot mode, he retains several decos that were removed from Hasbro's Premium Optimus Prime for cost reasons, such as the blue and gold decos on his thighs. Finally, the flip-out energy sword is coloured gold to reflect its "powered up" appearance.
Having been caught unaware by a surprise attack launched by the Decepticons, Optimus led his troops in a losing battle against their mortal enemies. Though Optimus managed to dispatch a few Decepticons, namely Thrust, whom he punched through the chest, he soon found himself crippled and surrounded by enemy forces. Praying to Primus as the Decepticons readied their weapons, Optimus heard Grimlock calling out to his fellow Dinobots to combine, prompting the Autobot leader to yell out a plead to Grimlock to stop. It was too late, however, and The Beast began rampaging, killing Autobots and Decepticons alike. Taking advantage of the situation nonetheless, Optimus tackled Megatron and began beating on the Decepticon leader. The tide of the battle now shifted, Optimus attempted to reach Grimlock’s consciousness within The Beast so that its mindless carnage could come to a halt. It didn't work. The Beast Within
Of course, while Bumblebee does a lot of serious action in the films, tumbling and punching and kicking, you don’t see McFly doing a whole lot of that in the Back to the Future films. In fact, McFly doesn’t get up to too much more hard-core physical action, aside from some skateboarding and wailing on the guitar. Nevertheless, Fox does have a distinctly bowlegged gait, and you can see some of that in Bumblebee, and you can maybe see some Fox mannerisms in his more casual interactions with Sam Witwicky.
Takara's version of the figure was released in their markets slightly earlier, as the first of what would come to be several installments in their Masterpiece line. In addition to coming with a cardboard trailer that the buyer could assemble to "complete" Prime's truck mode, Takara's release differed from Hasbro's by featuring longer smokestacks (kept short on the Hasbro version for safety reasons, but incorrectly shown to be long in the stock photography shown at right), and lacking the black scorch-marked "battle damage" paint applications Hasbro included on the figure's shoulders, wrists and abdomen.
Hero Optimus Prime was the first new-mold Optimus Prime toy in the Generation 2 line. He transforms into a Kenworth truck of unknown model with a flatbed trailer. The truck and trailer form his robot mode, but cannot disconnect. His primary gimmick is an air-powered missile launcher that uses an air bellows attached by hose to launch his large, hollow, soft-rubber-tipped missiles. The bellows and missiles attach to his back in robot mode. His rifle plugs into the launcher's main body in truck mode.
Released as part of the first wave of the Energon Igniters Nitro Series, this Optimus Prime is a new Voyager-sized mold that converts from a robot based on his Age of Extinction body into a truck in 11 steps, and he features 5mm-compatible hands & articulation on his head, arms, and only his upper legs. He also features built-in Ion Cannons in this lower leg panels, activated in vehicle mode. He also comes with his own energon core, which is a different mold from his Power Plus toy.
For Transformers: Age of Extinction, Optimus Prime initially transforms into a rusty 1973 Marmon semi cab-over truck and later on a new alternate mode in a blue and red Western Star 5700 Custom semi-truck.[31][32] After humanity turns on all Transformers, regardless of faction, Optimus and the other Autobots go into hiding. Eventually, they find themselves being hunted by a rogue organization called Cemetery Wind. Optimus is severely injured in a trap set by the group, while many of the other Autobots, including Ratchet and Leadfoot, are slain. An inventor, Cade Yeager, comes to Prime's aid and helps restore his health. After uniting with a small band of Autobots, Optimus faces Lockdown, a ruthless bounty hunter allied with the humans, and KSI, an organization that produces man-made Transformers. Optimus is captured by Lockdown, but the Autobots rescue him. Optimus is quickly losing faith in humanity, but at the urging of Cade, chooses to stay and fight a resurrected Megatron and his new army. Prime awakens the ancient Dinobots, and rides a newly tamed Grimlock into battle through Hong Kong. He kills Lockdown and Harold Attinger at the film's climax as revenge for killing many of his friends, including Ratchet and Leadfoot. At the end of the film, he leaves Earth and flies off into deep space, seeking to find out the truth about his mysterious Creators.[33][34]
Of particular note to Prime completists is that this otherwise traditional reissue of the Generation One Prime cab has a brand-new head sculpt which is essentially a miniaturisation of the Masterpiece/20th Anniversary Prime's noggin. Not only does this give the "classic" Prime toy a more show-accurate head, it's also the first iteration of this familiar mould in which the head is actually poseable. Being one of the better-articulated early Generation One toys, Prime can finally look in any direction he can aim.
The Beast Wars were waged on prehistoric Earth, eventually leading to the discovery of the buried Ark. The beast Megatron, following the original Megatron's instructions in a desperate gambit, attempted to change history by killing Optimus Prime, who was still lying in The Ark in stasis lock. Megatron hoped that this would result in the Decepticons winning The Great War and the eventual rule of Cybertron by the Predacons, the descendants of the Decepticons. Megatron unleashed a full-power weapon blast at Optimus Prime's face, delivering a near fatal blow. Optimus Primal, however, took Prime's spark into his body to protect it from surgical trauma while his injuries were repaired. The subsequent power increase caused by Prime's spark's connection to the Matrix augmented Primal into the large, transmetal "Optimal Optimus" form with three alternate modes (jet, land vehicle, and transmetal gorilla). Then, with the repairs complete, Prime's spark was restored, and he briefly activated before sinking back into normal stasis.
The final waves of this line, released in early 2014, really pushed towards younger kids, with incredibly simplified designs based on the characters' Cyberverse releases, which actually allowed the toys to be larger than most others in their size class. Unfortunately, as they were tail-enders, their US releases were nearly nonexistant: only the Voyagers made it out at US retail, and only through discount chains like Ross and TJ Maxx. The rest ended up released only overseas (not even Canada got them!).
After weeks of Decepticon silence, Optimus Prime decided to get proactive and sent out patrols all over the planet to try and flush the villains out. None of the patrols reported back with any success, however, and Prime realized that there was one area of the planet that his troops had deliberately ignored: the mysterious "Nebulos Triangle". Quickswitch, Scoop and Quickmix were sent into the Triangle, and they did indeed discover and foil the Decepticon plot going on in the area. Decepticons Underground
Optimus Prime grew concerned when Hound picked up a communication from Laserbeak that indicated the Decepticons had grown interested in a mysterious structure near a human village. Prime and a team of Autobots headed out to investigate, and they battled the Decepticons over the structure, which turned out to be a harmless windmill. Laserbeak's Fury
Released as part of the second wave of Clash of the Transformers subline imprint that's exclusive to Toys"R"Us stores, this Power Surge Optimus Prime is a redeco of the toy above, featuring transparent blue parts, white paint applications to the shoulder armor/front truck kibble, his chest, & leg/trailer striping to resemble his larger Power Surge Optimus Prime figure.
Optimus battled alongside the Alternity to fend off the beast, when unexpectedly, Megatron overwrote the beast's higher functions with his own. At first, it seemed that the Hytherion had been killed, but a newly empowered Megatron (in two bodies) appeared and declared that, now possessing a power that rivaled the Alternity's, he challenged his opponents to take him on or see the multiverse itself burn. To Mega Therion
3. Licensed themes: In the 80’s the Lego sets were more generic and interchangeable among themes. There were the basic Space, Town, Castle themes. The color schemes within a theme were more homogeneous (i.e. Blacktron sets or Mtron sets all had a common color scheme). Since there was no “fictional” real life object being copied, piece selection tended to emphasize versatility over “realism”. Almost every Lego set of the past had pictures of alternate models featured on the boxes and instructions that was meant to inspire a child to not just build the model featured in the instructions, but to embark on the mental challenge of making their own creations.
Optimus was made available as a mail-away toy in the "Digital Doom on the Highway to Destruction" offer in the US in 1986 to coincide with the Transformers movie in 1986. He cost $21.50 and 5 robot points, and came with a special Movie Edition Certificate and a round sticker that read " Movie . Edition . Transformer" with the Autobot symbol in the middle. (This item is considered rare.)
Released as part of The blindpacked EZ Collection Real by TakaraTomy's "TakaraTomy A.R.T.S", this Optimus Prime is an extensive redeco of the Revenge of the Fallen Legends Class figure, sharing the same paint mask with the Battle Damaged figure sans the weathering. Like all land-based vehicles in this line, He also features an extra paint applications on the wheels rims. This redeco also uses the slightly small fuel tank/elbow tabs.
Some time later, as the war raged between Autobots and Decepticons on Earth, Optimus had requested the Aerialbots as reinforcements from Cybertron. Though they nearly defected to the Decepticons, Optimus was able to secure the Aerialbots as allies. Later, when a power plant had to be evacuated of its human workers due to the fear of landslides, Optimus posted Denfensor at the location to secure its protection. Optimus then drove off to check up on the rest of his troops who were aiding in the area’s evacuation. Though he passed a military convoy heading towards a plant, he thought nothing of it, unaware that they were the newly created Combaticons in disguise. Optimus then reached the Ark, and from there opened communications with the Aerialbots. Optimus had someone come into the know that the Decepticons were moving in towards the plant. He watched from afar as Defensor and Superion fought Menasor and Bruticus, wary to send more Autobots into the fray while these titans wreaked havoc onto the battlefield. Optimus allowed himself a smile when the Aerialbots and the Protectobots proved themselves superior teams to the Decepticons’, though at the back of his mind, he was wary. After all, Megatron himself had chosen not to add his considerably weight to the battle... The Special Teams

This release is a redeco of the Cyberverse Commander Optimus Prime figure, with a lighter gradient paint job that lacks the flames, and with Optimus sporting a G1 insignia. Instead of his jetpack and guns, he comes with his trailer/Armored Weapons Platform, which can transform into a base and exo-suit. The trailer itself features movie-style insignias.

The figure was released in Japan along with Legends Megatron and Starscream, under the "EZ Collection" banner, in the same packaging as the Hasbro release but with a small card insert featuring the Japanese logo and nomenclature, similar to a USA Edition. As with all the EZ Collection figures, this release features a substantially greater number of paint operations that increase Optimus's resemblance to his larger figure.
Nonetheless, I remain a big fan of Lego and although I think they have somewhat moved away from their roots with the excess of licensed products (and the earlier licensed products were, in my opinion, not very good because they contained too many specialized non-generic pieces that weren’t useful for generic building. But that situation is improved and in particular we have found the Star Wars sets to be of most value for generic building, because they generally have very few really specialized pieces (although to be fair the sets are most useful for building other spaceships, etc).